[Freegis-list] gisuser.com

[Bernhard Reiter]

Hi Glenn,

On Tue, Jan 04, 2005 at 08:14:46AM -0800, GISuser.com - Glenn wrote:
> Actually many of those products infact ARE free products and fully
> functional if you took the time to look into them. Agreed, some are
> demos or trial ware but many are no-hitch freeware and excellent
> products!

this mailinglist and the FreeGIS project 
is about software (and related things) coming with the freedom to 
	a) use for any purporse, 
	b) study and adapt to your needs 
	   (you need the source for for this)
	c) copy 
	d) publish improved versions (source also needed)

It also means the freedom to use it commercially, e.g. offer
support for it, use it as tool and so on.

Some people are using the term "open source" to mean the same
about 15 years after the first appearance of the concept of Free Software.
This is why I stick to the term "Free Software".

I checked your link 
and found roughly 80% of the links to lack important freedoms.

> Note, there's also an extensive listing of open source SDKs and products
> here as well
> http://www.gisuser.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=105&func=selectcat&cat=6

The rate of Free Software is a lot higher in that list, as far as I can see.

> If you think that this post is shameless self-profiting or advertising
> then you are a little bit paranoid my friend as there are some fine
> resources here.

The webpages you have linked carry advertisments 
for proprietary software. But this is something readers have to decide
if they want to pay a site by buying the advertised products, 
sponsor it with their tax-money over a scientific funding
or pay for an less advertisment prune site directly.


This list is one of the rare places, 
where the freedom of the users and the society according to GIS is discussed.

Sometimes it can be useful to discuss features of proprietary software 
or give link to see how the Free Software GIS community relates,
but in general I hope to keep the quality of the list high
in keeping the focus on the freedom of GIS.
This is what I wanted to point out.

Regards,
	Bernhard
-- 
Professional Service around Free Software                (intevation.net)  
Experts for complex webmapping! In business since 1999:
	http://intevation.net/services/gis/webmapping.en.html
Pay for FreeGIS if you like it: http://freegis.org/about-paying.en.html
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